Secretary Clinton to Travel to Germany and Bulgaria

When she attended the inauguration of Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff a year ago New Year’s Day, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria invited both Rouseff and HRC to visit in October of last year. Perhaps Rouseff went, but HRC did not. I believe this will be her first trip there as SOS.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle arrive for a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary Clinton to Travel to Germany and Bulgaria

Press Statement

Victoria Nuland
Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

January 27, 2012

On February 3-5, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Germany and Bulgaria. In Munich, Germany, Secretary Clinton will participate in the 48th Munich Security Conference. This annual event brings together global leaders to discuss common security challenges. In her address to the Conference, the Secretary will reaffirm the fundamental importance of the transatlantic relationship and Europe’s role as an essential partner in addressing global security challenges.

While in Munich the Secretary will also hold bilateral meetings with her European and other counterparts.

The Secretary will travel to Sofia, Bulgaria, February 5, to meet with senior Bulgarian officials and discuss a range of issues, including democratic transitions in the Middle East, our ongoing support for Afghanistan, energy security and our bilateral cooperation in international law enforcement.

I know! The entire tone was thinly veiled misogyny (or maybe not so veiled at all). Compared to her, Rachel Maddow, circa 2008 was a HillPAC poster girl I am softening on Maddow lately. It was very nice of her to have Karen Finney on to comment on SOTU the other night.

Lionel Shriver, OTOH, doesn’t even make it to my list of passive-aggressive female writers who give back-handed compliments and make money off of books and articles about HRC.

Discourse, I hope you didn’t show that article to your mom. I like to see her stay happy and positive. 🙂

I’m still curious about what exactly one has to do to be a “credit to their gender” when being the first presidential spouse to hold an advanced degree, having a seven year and rather successful tenure in the United States Senate, and being a respected figure worldwide and independent of her husband’s legacy is apparently not enough to get you there. If anyone can set me straight on this issue, I would really appreciate it.

It’s a sexist remark the same as if one were to call someone of any race “a credit to his/her race” would be a racist remark. Gratuitous Obviously Lionel is a hater. There are some people who will never fully accept HRC on her own terms. The fact that she subscribes to the Chris Matthews meme that HRC achieved her posts by means of her marriage pretty much bears out her flexibility. Also the comment that she “might” support her in the future. What additional fiery hoops HRC must jump through in Lionel’s opinion have not been specified, but people like her would be the ones that must give Hillary pause about ever entering another contest. She has the power of the keyboard. Fortunately, given the social media, so do we.

I think her being “Mrs. Bill Clinton” may have helped her in her first Senate campaign, but only because what she was able to do as the First Lady of Arkansas and then as the nation’s First Lady gave her kind of a nice resumé. I also think that, particularly in her first run for Senate, that being “Mrs. Bill Clinton” gave her a lot of personal baggage to get past with the public, so I don’t think that her spouse gave her any real political advantages outside of giving her some experience and unique opportunities to do some good for people.

I found the article remarkable because it is the first public statement I’ve read from an avowed,Hillary-hating Obamabot that maybe, just maybe they chose the wrong horse. I’ve had plenty of friends and colleagues tell me so behind the scenes, but many stick stubbornly to their guns that Obama was the right choice and even go so far as to smiek, “So what has Hillary done exactly as SOS?” — refusing to acknowledge anything positive about her tenure and accomplishments throughout her career. There are Hillary-haters who will go on hating her to their last dying breath, but former Obamabot Shriver is not one of them. Sure, her praise is a tad grudging . I was also irked by the “credit to her gender” remarks — particularly coming from a woman — but in 2008 it was often women (and women who considered themselves liberals and feminists, like Shriver) who were particularly vicious in their attacks on Hillary for riding Bill’s coattails into public office (sic) and threw around the “Billary” moniker with such glee. It was nice to see at least one of them acknowledge she was wrong — however flawed the apology.

There is a lot of buyer’s remorse out there, and this week in FL, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is having a hard time explaining her 180 in 2008 (which makes me smirk).

Shriver certainly appears to exhibit some of the worst characteristics of the Obots we encountered in everyday life, so I guess her grudging admiration counts for something, but I am not sitting on a hot stove waiting for the obots around me to decide HRC is a pretty good egg after all.

Not in that one, but a few weeks later, when I had finally accepted that I was going to have to post these articles, both she and Peggy Noonan on the same day or within a few days both voiced agreement with those of us who were crying out for HRC.

It has nothing to do with what I think or know. I am simply reporting what the media is hammering her with down there in FL where they are all gathered this week. I am enjoying watching her try to ‘splain on every show she visits.

There well may be other photos from foreign sources that we did not see. There were not many photos here from the inauguration, but this is the one I found at Daylife.

Hillary has a straight face but the look on Abdoulaye’s face – in fact the juxtaposition of those two expressions did catch my attention at the time. I wonder if there had been an exchange. And I wonder who drew up the seating charts!

But it is so rare for her to have an actual straight face as opposed to some sort of smile or acknowledgment of the person beside her. This time it’s like the Senegalese president is simply a hole in space. He’ll look at her, but the Secretary is not having it.

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